Posted on February 6, 2010 by louloupink
As mentioned in an earlier post, we are trying to incorporate as many non-toxic products as possible into our lives and into Matilda’s life. I believe this is important for a number of reasons. First, it is proven that a lot of the ingredients/materials found in many baby and adult products can cause asthma and allergies. Second, why not go as natural as possible? Who really knows the long term effects of all of these toxins.
I have to say that it was not the easiest thing to put together a baby registry where the products fit the criteria that I was looking for: safety, toxin levels and quality or “will Steve, myself and our baby like this product”. Apparently this is a very high standard to reach and not many companies are on board to do all three. It seems that most companies focus on one and seem to forget about the other two.
Because of the difficulty I had finding a lot of these products, I decided to register at Babies R Us and Amazon. I would have loved to of registered at one of the smaller online companies that sell a lot of the products I was looking for, but having three separate registries seemed like a little much.
So, here it goes…I obviously have not tried a lot of these products. I thought I would show you the products in our registry and talk a little about why I chose each of them.
1. Stokke Tripp Trapp Highchair–This is one of the only non-toxic highchairs I could find. Don’t let the price point scare you because it can be used all the way into adulthood. I like the fact that it encourages your baby to sit at the table with you while she eats.
2. Kushies Baby Shangrila Multi-Sensory Activity Play Mat–Could not find information on the toxin levels in this product, but love that they use a lot of black and white in the material. Babies eyes are attracted and stimulated by black and white patterns.
3. Graco Pack ‘n Play Portable Playard – Nouvelle–Bromine levels are < 8ppm which is a negligible level according to Friends of the Earth. It has high customer ratings on Babies R Us and it is not obnoxious looking.
4. Sunshine Kids 18460 Radian 80SL Convertible Car Seat–Very low toxin levels according to Healthystuff.org. Very high NCAP crash test rating. I feel confident that we found the best car seat on the market.
5. The Nesting Pillow-Organic Nursing Pillow with Washable Slip Cover–It is 100% organic inside and out. All 5 star customer reviews.
6. Ergo Dark Chocolate Organic Baby Carrier–This carrier is supposed to give better support to your baby’s spine and hips. Very high customer reviews.
7. Nuby BPA Free 7 Piece Medical Organizer Kit–This is the only BPA free medical kit I could find.
8. Moby Wrap Organic Cotton Baby Carrier–Great ratings and organic.
9. I had a really hard time finding a stroller that was not a thousand dollars with low toxin levels and high customer ratings. I ended up registering for the Schwinn Hope Single Swivel Wheel Stroller. I could not find anything on the toxin levels on this one, but would love to know. I wanted a light three wheeler that I could jog with and at least some of the proceeds go towards breast cancer research. If you are looking for a decently priced four wheel stroller with high ratings and low toxins, I think the Joovy Caboose Ultralight Stand On Tandem Stroller checks out pretty good.
10. None of the bouncers with low toxin levels had very high customer ratings, so we decided to go with the Fisher-Price Newborn Rock and Play Sleeper. If anyone comes across the toxin levels for this product, I would love to know them.
11. Don’t know the toxin levels of the Fisher-Price Papasan Cradle Swing -My Little Lamb either, but I heard they are crack for babies. I’ll keep you posted on that one.
We registered for a few other small things, clothing and what not. I will maybe do another post on my favorite clothes once we have her here and can talk intelligently about what we like and why.
We are also going to try to brave the cloth diaper world. We are taking a class at Cotton Babies on Wednesday to try to learn the ins and outs of cloth diapering. Not that it is rocket science, but there are just so many options out there now. I am leaning toward the all in one organic Bumgenius. We shall see.
I hope you happened upon this list sooner than later and that it saved you bucket loads of time. I kept thinking while I was doing all of this research that I wish I had a list like this.
I would love to hear about the products you have come across that are low in toxins and high in quality. Always looking to support companies who do it right 
Good luck with everything!
Posted on February 4, 2010 by louloupink
I had my second ultrasound yesterday to check the size of the baby and to be sure that everything is looking ok. All looks well-maybe a little too well. This little girl is in the 98th percentile for weight and size. They are guesstimating between 9lb. and 11lb if I go full term. All I can say to myself is take it one step at a time and see if you can do it. See if you can get this very large girl who is going to come out talking and smoking and lifting weights out naturally. She’s gonna be like “Hi Mom, I’ve been waiting to meet you. It was quite cramped in your belly, now give me a steak. Medium rare.”
Here is the conversation that was had between myself, the ultrasound tech and my ma.
UT: What are you going to name this child?
Me: Matilda. My mom doesn’t like it but we don’t care.
Mom: I’m calling her Mattie.
Me: That is not her name.
UT: You should listen to your mother. This little girl is going to grow up and ask you why you named her Matilda.
Mom: That’s right, I told her that.
UT: You should listen to your mom. What is the child’s middle name?
Me: Parker
UT: Mmmm. I knew you all were a little different. Aren’t you.
Mom: They’re a couple of hippies.
UT: Maybe she will call herself Melanie, or Matte.
Mom: I’m calling her Mattie.
Me: Mattie is not her name. Her name is Matilda and we love the name and she will too.
And then the conversation turned to lecturing me about how many sweets I eat and how I made this baby this big and it’s not because I weighed 9 lb. 3 oz. and my husband weighed 10 lb. Nope, it’s because I ate too much. And also how crazy I am for trying to go natural and how it’s not going to be possible with a baby this size.
I take it all in stride. We shall see.
Anyone else deal with frowns and funny looks when they told the name they had picked? I know some people don’t tell until the baby is here, but I figured that it would give everyone time to get used to it. Looks like it is going to be an uphill battle. Once she is here she will be nothing but Matilda to everyone.
Posted on January 13, 2010 by louloupink
We have decided to have a hospital birth because we are a couple of weenies and at the beginning of this insane process thought that it would be safer. After reading so many birthing stories and attending our 3rd Lamaze class, we are second guessing ourselves. I don’t want any intervention if I can help it. I don’t even want an I.V. in my arm. I want to be free to move around, get in a tub. Not to mention the fact that I don’t want anyone to have open access to my insides, allowing them to inject whatever medication they feel will get them out of there faster while I am in a state of intense pain or panic. Hopefully not panic, but you never know, right?
Steve and I both walked out of the class at half time and said, “Let’s just go get a birthing pool and have Matilda at home.” That sounds so nice and relaxing. I know some people go into the hospital and feel safe and well cared for, but I am going to be a nervous wreck, thinking that everything the peeps at the hospital ask me has ulterior motives. It makes my blood pressure rise just thinking about it.
Intervention scares me more than the pain of natural childbirth.
I hate needles. They make me woozy, even if they are in a cartoon animation.
Speaking of animations, we saw one last night of a cesarean. Ooga Booga. I know that most of my friends who have had one say that it is no biggie. And honestly, I was fine when they cartoonly sliced through the skin and muscle. And when they cartoonly sliced through the uterus. But, when they pried it all open with big metal salad tongs, the cartoon didn’t seem so cartoony anymore and I about rolled off of my chair. No biggie though, I am sure.
And cesareans only happen with one out of every three births at the hospital that we are having Matilda. Sometimes higher, but who’s counting? And the odds are really with us with those numbers, right?
But that’s only if the vacuum cleaner that they attach to her head to suck her out doesn’t work. No wait, one more thing they can try: salad tongs up your va-jay-jay, clamped to your sweet, little baby’s soft little head. Don’t worry, it only causes paralysis in some babies.
I do understand that we are going to a hospital that performs a lot of difficult, high risk births, but most of the moms that I know who ended up in these precarious (ahem understatement) situations were not high risk. No, they were given pitocin to speed that little baby up. I mean really, come on baby, what’s taking so long? Get it together and get your shit out here.
Oh shit! Now my contractions hurt to all high hell and I can’t even handle this shit anymore. Will someone please, please stick me in the back with a super long needle and then insert a tube into my back that injects medication that makes me unable to walk and not feel my legs or anything in or around my va-jay-jay? Did I mention that I now have a hole in my back that is shooting medicine into myself and my baby?
Woozy again just talking about it.
So yeah, I have a bit of a fear of hospital births. I am sure that it is not as bad as I am foreseeing it. I am sure that it will all go fine and I will be relaxed and that the nurses will do everything that my husband, myself and our doula tell them to do. That is why I am bringing in the troops. If anyone tries to touch me with any bullshit that I have not approved, Steve will get them from behind and the doula will take them from the front. Down. If anyone asks me the same question more than once like, “Would you like us to induce?” I am going to go ballistic on their asses and then they are gonna try to tie me down like they did in the olden days.
Anyway, Steve and I really want a natural birth. We are so afraid that we are jeopardizing the chances of having one by doing this in a hospital. But again, we are afraid of the consequences of a home birth that could go awry, not to mention the fact that home births are illegal in Missouri. Gotta love the midwest.
Maybe I need you internet people. Maybe I need you to tell me about your births. Even if you planned for an epidural and wanted all of the drugs, maybe your stories will calm me into feeling like this can go smoothly without the pressure from outside sources to just “get ‘er dun.”
Getterdun.
***Clarification*** This post reflects my insane fears and concerns for myself during labor and delivery. All of what I wrote is what is in my ahead about the fears that I have of my own pregnancy experience. I was also flabbergasted at the lackadaisical approach of presenting all of this intervention to us in my lamaze class. It is in no way a reflection on anyone’s experience during their own delivery. I truly believe that anything that happens during labor and delivery, so long as the mom wanted it, is what needed to happen for herself and her baby to get through the process in a manner that was safe and right for them. I don’t want anyone to ever think that I am judging decisions they have made. I, for my first birthing experience need the safety of the hospital and am too scared to have a home birth. I also truly love to hear everyone’s birthing experiences. Whether they are insane or went totally smooth, drugs, no drugs, home, hospital. I feel like people mostly write about their scary experiences and my brain is lacking positive birthing stories.
Posted on January 9, 2010 by louloupink
I read this really great blog post today about trying not to let the negative things that happened in the past affect your present. The post really could not have come on a better day for me. Or shall I say could not have come at a more convenient time when I was feeling pretty crappy about some of the decisions I had made within the last day.
I have not talked much about the animal rescue work I do for a few reasons. First, it tends to take over. When I start to write about it, it becomes addictive and I forget about the rest of my life, so instead I started to write a book about my adventures in pet rescue. I also wanted to make myself more vulnerable by sharing more than just rescue with you through this blog.
Anyway, I just had a really shitty day in the rescue arena. One of the dogs we rescued last week got away from her new foster. I feel like it was my fault because I should have advised the woman better on how to transport this sweet dog. I should have been more thorough in the foster interview process. I should have done a lot of things that I did not do.
We put so much time, love, effort, life into caring for and rescuing and thinking about these dogs that when one does not go well it is heartbreaking. Unfortunately, this particular dog just had surgery, was treated for heartworm and is out in the cold in an unknown area on the two coldest nights of the year. She is feral, so there is really no chance of us finding her again. I cannot shake the fact that had I made better decisions, this dog could be safe and in a warm home.
These types of incidents make me want to stop doing rescue, they make me want to eradicate the heartache that rescue work sometimes brings. I keep telling myself that I need to stop pondering on the negative. There is only so much I can control and if I let the negatives affect all of the positive that can be done in the future, well things just won’t get done that way.
I suppose the only way things can change and the world can be a better place is for people to stop looking over their shoulders at the decisions that they regret, not hole yourself up in a box ignoring the things that may bring you heartache, but allowing yourself to work through them and move on to continue to do the work that really does bring more joy than heartache. Not to mention that it is not heartache for the thousands of other dogs that we have rescued and will rescue in the future.
I am a hormonal crying mess that can’t stop blubbering about this poor dog and I wish the stupid fucking weather woman would stop telling me how fucking cold it is going to be tonight. It’s like rubbing salt in my wound.
Posted on January 9, 2010 by louloupink
Lamaze class always makes for good jokes and fun. This week we watched a video of a live birth of a baby. When the baby was born, they set her on the mother’s stomach and wiped her down with a towel, cut the cord and allowed her to nurse. After the movie was over the teacher asked if we had any questions. A girl raised her hand and said, “Are they going to set that disgusting baby on me without cleaning it up.” I am not kidding. I tried to smile at her because I don’t like anyone to feel uncomfortable and I thought maybe she was joking about it. But, she went on and on and I found myself staring at her with a sour puss look on my face, jaw dropped, scoffing. Maybe she didn’t mean to get pregnant.
And then came the moment where the baby daddy was supposed to tell the baby mama 3 phrases of encouragement that they might say to us when we are dying of pain. When it came to the aforementioned scared of her own disgusting baby’s filth husband, he pulled a pickle wrapped in plastic wrap out of his pocket and said that he would bribe her to keep going with a pickle.
What?
But really, I would like to hear how you got through your birth. Was there anything you wish you would have done differently…like not touch your baby until it was clean? All joking aside, really was there anything you wish you would have brought with you, asked for more directly, made more clear before the whole insanity started? I am getting ready to make my birthing plan. I realize that nothing is set in stone when it comes to childbirth, but I do have a pretty clear idea of how I want things to be handled that are in my control. I would love to hear about yours.
I just hope my baby comes out clean.
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